Barta’a and Toura Checkpoints: back to pre-Corona-closure function
Re our phone talks with our acquaintance M. about opening the agricultural checkpoint next to his village, Anin, we continued to look into the matter with the DCO and the Center for the Defense of the Individual. On the Jewish holiday eve of Shavuot M. was told by the Center that the checkpoint would be opened on Monday, June 1. I checked with the DCO after the holiday and they too said the checkpoint would be opened on Monday and gave me the exact hours of its opening at Anin (gate 214) and Tayibe-Roumana (gate 154). I called M. and gave him the good news. On Monday at 7:30 a.m. he called and said that he and other farmers came there at 6:30 a.m. but the checkpoint was not opened and everyone was going back to the village. I called the DCO. A woman-soldier told me it was yet unknown when it would be opened. Another said they were waiting for a decision. I updated M. that the matter is still unsettled. He thanked me and wished me a good day. In his stead I would be raging…
Hannah and I decided to be on our shift since the checkpoints were opening after the Corona-virus closure.
15:40 Toura-Shaked Checkpoint
The checkpoint is open and empty. Electricity and pipe works are being conducted on the road leading to it. We try to speak with a soldier at the watchtower. His friend silences him, says they are not allowed to speak with us.
15:50 A woman sits in the shade at the humble prayer site opposite the village of Daher Al Malah. We try to ask her about the goings-on at the checkpoint during the Corona time. Language difficulties do not allow for conversation. A Hebrew-speaking youngster arrives. He says that until two weeks ago the checkpoint was opened for only a few hours every day and served only the residents of Daher al Malah, Khirbet Radiyah and Umm Al Reiham on their way to the West Bank and back to their villages inside the seam-line zone. Others were forced to cross at the Barta’a checkpoint. Now the checkpoint is back to “normal”.
16:00 Barta’a-Reiham Checkpoint, Palestinian side
The car park is nearly full, Palestinian ushers in place. Cars are also parked in the two car parks up the road. Many return from their workplaces at this time and back to their cars or transports. We met people working in Harish, Pardes Hannah and Hadera. Nearly no one crosses into the seam-line zone. One of the drivers told us that the checkpoint has only gone back to normal yesterday. That is what we also heard on the radio on Saturday night, that from Sunday on, Palestinians will be back to crossing again as they did before the closure. We bought drinks. Snacks, peanuts and watermelons were also on sale. The children selling coffee were not there.
16:30 We drove home through the Israeli town of Harish being built by Palestinian workers.
Barta’a-Reihan Checkpoint
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This checkpoint is located on the Separation Fence route, east of the Palestinian town of East Barta’a. The latter is the largest Palestinian community inside the seam-line zone (Barta’a Enclave) in the northern West Bank. Western Barta’a, inside Israel, is adjacent to it. The Checkpoint is open all week from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. Since mid-May 2007, the checkpoint has been managed by a civilian security company subordinate to the Ministry of Defense. People permitted to cross through this checkpoint into and from the West Bank are residents of Palestinian communities inside the Barta’a Enclave as well as West Bank Palestinian residents holding transit permit. Jewish settlers from Hermesh and Mevo Dotan cross here without inspection. A large, modern terminal is active here with 8 windows for document inspection and biometric tests (eyes and fingerprints). Usually only one or two of the 8 windows are in operation. Goods, up to medium commercial size, may pass here from the West Bank into the Barta’a Enclave. A permanent registered group of drives who have been approved by the may pass with farm produce. When the administration of the checkpoint was turned over to a civilian security firm, the Ya’abad-Mevo Dotan Junction became a permanent checkpoint. . It is manned by soldiers who sit in the watchtower and come down at random to inspect vehicles and passengers (February 2020).
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Tura-Shaked
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Tura-Shaked
This is a fabric of life* checkpoint through which pedestrians, cabs and private cars (since 2008) pass to and from the West Bank and the Seam-line Zone to and from the industrical zone near the settler-colony Shaked, schools and kindergartens, and Jenin university campuses. The checkpoint is located between Tura village inside the West Bank and the village of Dahar Al Malah inside the enclave of the Seam-line Zone. It is opened twice a day, between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m., and from 12 noon to 7 p.m. People crossing it (at times even kindergarten children) are inspected in a bungalow with a magnometer. Names of those allowed to cross it appear in a list held by the soldiers. Usually traffic here is scant.
- fabric of life roads and checkpoints, as defined by the Terminals Authority in the Ministry of Defense (fabric of life is a laundered name that does not actually describe any kind of humanitarian purpose) are intended for Palestinians only. These roads and checkpoints have been built on lands appropriated from their Palestinian owners, including tunnels, bypass roads, and tracks passing under bridges. Thus traffic can flow between the West Bank and its separated parts that are not in any kind of territorial contiguity with it. Mostly there are no permanent checkpoint on these roads but rather ‘flying’ checkpoints, check-posts or surprise barriers. At Toura, a small (less than one dunam) and sleepy checkpoint has been established, which has filled up with the years with nearly .every means of supervision and surveillance that the Israeli military occupation has produced. (February 2020)
Ruti TuvalMar-21-2022Anin Checkpoint: A magnificent breach in the center of the checkpoint
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